W203 C180 Avantgard 2001 - no satnav/mobile phone connection

[Mike Walker]

Have established that the car I recently purchased is not wired for mobile phone/Satnav/Comand so investigated cost of retrofitting - £950+.

Alternative could be to purchase Tom Tom GO 730 from Halfords (£279.99), let them fit it (£39.99) so no wires to/from the cigarette lighter, and it will give me satnav, pick up my bluetooth mobile and ipod too.

All sounds too good to be true so has anyone had the experience, good/bad, and should I be thinking of another option?

All advice gratefully received.

[whitenemesis]

COMAND is OEM, so totally integrated, totally in keeping with the car.

TOM TOM is an add-on and will look like an add on (even hard wired). It will be a much greater risk from theft.

BUT

Tom tom will be far more capable as a sat nav, there is no doubt.

Personally I would only treat my car to genuine Merc kit, just my opinion....

[oorjim2]

Hi I have had the TomTom 710 for a couple of years I used it in Canada and here and never had any trouble with it. I have the command fitted in the car now but it is not hardwired for the telephone but I bought the Motorola T505 with the FM transmitter.
Jim.

[columb]

Hi!

I had same questions and decided to go for... TOMTOM!
EU coverage (on one map, don't have change CDs in every country!), full postcode search, can take with you and walk to address/POI (museum?) much cheaper..
And few more things like POI warnings (speed cameras!)- very useful.

Cheers
Chris

[miro]

There are only two problems with portable navigation.

a) No speed signal from the wheels which is really handy in tunnels.

b) No phone mute ..... however .... some can operate a remote mute relay which attaches to the back of the radio. I think it is bluetooth operated.

Having travelled across the EU with an OEM and a portable navigator I can honestly say that the portable technology is more enjoyable on the open road. When you turn off to buy fuel and turn in the parking the OEM unit is more accurate and doesnt put you on the wrong on-ramp (extremely useful in Austria where the fuel stop is 1km along a winding road which goes under the freeway).

[columb]

Originally Posted by miro

There are only two problems with portable navigation.

a) No speed signal from the wheels which is really handy in tunnels.

That is not a problem with current TTs. They will guide you based on the average speed!

Cheers
Chris

[charddude]

Hi mike,

Just a quick thought. you say its a 2001 c-class. comand on the old 203 chassis is only CD-rom based so i wouldn't bother with that route.

I could suggest an alternative aftermarket part made by pioneer.

http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products...0BT/index.html

This particular unit is better than even the new MB harddrive comands that are currently being fitted to the new models of Mercedes.

Its NAV, Multimedia, DVD video, MP3, WMA, Ipod ready, SD card slot and more than that it now has a Parrot Bluetooth phonekit built into the unit.

To connect a 3G Iphone to this unit you will require the following part
http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products...30V/index.html

this will allow the iphone to bluetooth to the unit as phone but plug into the phone for the ipod audio/video solution.

hope this might be useful

Chard

[BaldGuy]

TomTom is great but would NEVER let any of the Halfords monkeys near my car....

[HughJarse]

Originally Posted by Mike Walker

Have established that the car I recently purchased is not wired for mobile phone/Satnav/Comand so investigated cost of retrofitting - £950+.

Alternative could be to purchase Tom Tom GO 730 from Halfords (£279.99), let them fit it (£39.99) so no wires to/from the cigarette lighter, and it will give me satnav, pick up my bluetooth mobile and ipod too.

All sounds too good to be true so has anyone had the experience, good/bad, and should I be thinking of another option?

All advice gratefully received.

Buy a comand and fit it youself, then add a porrt at the same time.
2 hour job if you take it steady. Quicker if you know what your doing.

[columb]

Originally Posted by HughJarse

Buy a comand and fit it youself, then add a porrt at the same time.
2 hour job if you take it steady. Quicker if you know what your doing.

Cheapest I could find on ebay was around £500 or more!
And you need all the bits and pieces extra... I would do this with DVD based- forget about CD.

Cheers
Chris

[Mike Walker]

Originally Posted by columb

Cheapest I could find on ebay was around £500 or more!
And you need all the bits and pieces extra... I would do this with DVD based- forget about CD.

Cheers
Chris

Thanks to all for your advice - much appreciated . One, well two actually, further questions for now.... Which system is DVD based? halfords are the main supplier locally of the Pioneer AV1C suggested so what now for fitting if they are all monkeys - lol. Aaaagh!

[columb]

Hi,

Actually I'm looking for a nice cradle for a TT and TT730T. Actually, my GF(soon to be wife) told me that it would be a perfect Christmas gift (so no surprise this year).

I'm planning to fit cradle permanently on the right side of the dashboard and hide cables somehow
TT 730T looks really nice and costs only around £250!

Cheers
Chris

[miro]

Originally Posted by columb

That is not a problem with current TTs. They will guide you based on the average speed!

Cheers
Chris

Did a lot of that in Austria. Speaking from experience .... totally useless. When you have to do a turn inside a very long tunnel going downhill that information would be extremely useful.

[miro]

Originally Posted by Mike Walker

Thanks to all for your advice - much appreciated . One, well two actually, further questions for now.... Which system is DVD based? halfords are the main supplier locally of the Pioneer AV1C suggested so what now for fitting if they are all monkeys - lol. Aaaagh!

Every japanese based system is DVD based IF it has a detached DVD processor. Other than that you could also look at getting one of the touch screen navigations and integrating that into the console.

Lexus springs to mind. If you are going to go out there into the unknown then why stick with pre-packs. You can mess with any brand in the world.

[Mike Walker]

Many thanks for all the responses. Have now purchased a MDA mobile phone from ebay for less than £100 which has Tom Tom already installed. This also links to my laptop for Outlook/emails/calendar/diary, provides internet access and takes my company sim card for mobile fone. No need for wires or Halfords fitters so a good result all round I think.